Keyboard shortcuts - Which ones do you add?

I move around to different clients on a fairly regular basis and I usually need to use their in house "copy settings wizard" file so that I'm working with the proper parameters for their workflow. I have a number of keyboard shortcuts that I simply cannot work efficiently without. So I end up adding those at each new client.

Here are some of my 'must have' shortcuts.

M = Measure tool

D = Smart dimension

T = Trim entities (sketch)

E = Extend entities (sketch)

H = Show/Hide components (I know I can use tab, but old habits die hard and I do find myself using tab and shift-tab sometimes)

CTRL-SHIFT-S = Save As (an old habit from Photoshop that I use constantly)

I don't. Because unlike many users I didn't start with AutoCAD so I didn't get into the habit of using them, and also because I don't want to take my left hand off my 3d mouse, I use only the bare minimum number of keyboard shortcuts. I use Mouse Gestures for many of the same functions others use keyboard shortcuts for.

I could not get the hang of the mouse gestures. When they were first introduced I kept accidentally using them and causing all kinds of havoc. I ended up turning it off to save my sanity, when I finally wanted to give them a try 'for real' I still found them pretty frustrating and gave up soon thereafter. When I add my shortcuts to an installation, I disable mouse gestures at the same time.

I have dozens and dozens of keyboard shortcuts. I always have my left hand on the keyboard and rarely mouse up to a menu or toolbar. Yup, it's a carryover from my AutoCAD days, but I swear it's faster and I'm not just an old dog who refuses to learn new tricks. ;-)

I'm with you. I feel like I'm faster with the keyboard shortcuts than with anything involving a mouse click. I've built up muscle memory to the point where sometimes I'm not even aware that I'm using shortcut. If I have to visually place my cursor on an icon (mouse gesture or 's' key quick menu), it's definitely slower. I'm sure you could develop similar muscle memory to be able to use extra mouse buttons in the same way. For me, I like that I can go to anyone's workstation and be very efficient right out of the gates, no special hardware needed.

Good point about the visual aspect. Keyboard shortcuts aren't visual and it's pure muscle memory. While you can still develop muscle memory for mousing to a toolbar button, that memory can be thrown off if the visual indicator (the icon) is changed. That's why so many people got upset by the icon color change a while back. That color change never bothered me in the slightest because I just kept using my keyboard shortcuts and never missed a beat.

I don't agree that I can sit down at another computer and be as productive, however. I still need to load my shortcuts from a settings file I have saved on the network. Without my shortcuts I flounder like a newbie.

While I have been trying not to use the keyboard since I got the spacemouse pro and the cad mouse. I have to agree with Glenn. Have mouse gestures and the buttons on the spacemouse the keyboard is becoming less used. Just need the number pad.

Frankly until I went to take these screen shots, I thought it'd be one pass, but I had to max the customize window and take several snaps, so I guess I'm not using that high of a percentage of what's configured even though I do use kb shortcuts and not gestures: